Ground rent

[kettle81]

Hi all,

I hope I've put this in the right place!

We brought a maisonette 5 years ago, and in that time we have paid the leaseholder £200 ground rent pa
It has come to our attention that others who live on the same road as us, in maisonette's, pay as little as £7 pa!!
Downstairs pay £13 pa, however downstairs have lived in their flat for over 50 years, but someone else has only been around 15 or so years and pays next to nothing as well!!

Is it normal to have such a difference in amounts paid by us all!

Completely normal
I assume your lease has been extended and the ground rent updated to a more modern level.
Hope it's not an escalating ground rent... did your solicitor make it clear to you?

Thanks for replying,

We all have the same landlord,
Us and downstairs were given the opportunity to buy the freehold last year, but we both decided it wasn't worth it, as we are not looking to be here in 5 years time and the lease wouldn't have been beneficial to the value of our property

The lease was 960 years when we brought it!

Our solicitor didn't bring up the subject at all!!
As FTB we didn't raise any issues about it either!

I guess it is what it is then. 200 is quite high for a lease that was probably created 40 years ago though. 10 was more the prevailing rate at the time

Your solicitor didn't need to look at what ground rent your neighbours are paying, only whether or not yours is acceptable.

What is the date on the front of your lease?